Author: rreep

The “Sorry U Missed Us” art installation show at Redefine Gallery features work by Socky Chop, Decoy, Neosoe, and Tobar. Redefine Gallery is located at 213 N. Magnolia Avenue in Downtown Orlando. Along with Dolla Bill at Bold Hype and Bryce Hammond at Millenia, three galleries showing six street artists marks a milestone in this art form in Central Florida.

Outsiders view Orlando as an ephemeral city, identified universally with theme parks and the architecture of escapism. Competing with Las Vegas for visitors, Disney World and the other theme parks exhibit the talents of a vast group of artists and artisans, whose work is viewed by visitors worldwide. That works now belongs to Orlando’s classical period, while today the city’s visual artists find themselves under pressure, not from above but from below, as street artists rise up to the surface in the visual arts scene. Orlando’s unique sense of place can be reinforced with this art form, and street artists can help reinvent our ephemeral, theme-park ridden town as a contributor to this cutting-edge, worldwide art movement.

Named for the Spanish coin from the era of the Conquistadors, Escudo’s is a themed restaurant within the Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort. An 18-seat bar with up to 90 table seats, this outdoor grill embeds a colorful storyline into its architecture.

Currently under construction. The Knight residence is a sensitive 1980s interpretation of a classic Florida farmhouse, and the addition respects the original architecture. The addition comprises a 738 SF suite for parents, and includes recycled materials, highly efficient HVAC system, and foamed insulation products.

Energy efficient design features of vernacular Florida architecture include deep overhangs (3’); suspended floor; N-S solar orientation, and a semi-detached kitchen. The addition respected all these principles and followed LEED best practices.

Within minutes of Downtown Orlando’s Creative Village, the 1948 Washington Shores Shopping Center will receive a strategic insertion of a 2-story business incubator powered by photovoltaics. The shopping center’s original canopy was hurricaned, and will be replaced by a green-roof solution that provides much-needed shade and color on this south-facing storefront.

In contrast to the ever-changing face of western civilization, Stann Creek in Belize remains as it has been for thousands of years. Located just south of Dangriga, near Hopkinstown, the Preserve is a pristine natural wilderness that spans from the coast of the Caribbean Sea up into the Maya Mountain highlands.

All Pines will consist of 40 treehouse villas built by native Maya craftsmen on a peninsula straddling the Sapodilla Lagoon and the Caribbean Sea. Access will be by water taxi from the mainland. Each villa features a cistern and open ventilation. The hotel is completely off-the-grid with zero impact on the land.